After seeing Disney's Ice Age movie the other day, my interest in creating the illusion of three dimensions on a photographic print was peaked. Creating gerater depth of field, whether in camera or in post-processing, is sometimes quite a challenge, but what about going beyond DoF to creating a 3-D illusion in print? By nature, photography is a 2 dimensional medium, and we attempt to portray a three dimensional world within this medium, often desiring to bring the viewer into the scene in a way that depth of field alone on a flat print just does not accomplish.

What techniques have you tried to create an illusion of 3-D for images that will end up displayed in a two-dimensional medium such as print or online?

Not much time to say but i'll leave you with this. A lens with a large aperture, best imho to getting some 3d images are the 200/2.

Evan

Well I do cross-eye stereograms - these work upto quite large print sizes.
Done by taking 2 pics with lateral movement of about 1/30th of subject distance between shots and then aligning and cross-over the prints in a freeware prog called stereophotomaker.
Examples below

Brian V.

Thanks for your tips. I use the 70-200 2.8 with crisp results, but still seems to fall short of giving that jump into the image and explore it from everywhere feel whether I use it wide open or stopped down. I have even achieved engaging results at 400 5.6. But like Brian's stereoscopic technique, I wonder if composition might have something to do with creating 3 D.

I have to confess that I have not tried stereo, and know virtually nothing about it. Of course, that means that I have something new to explore!

Sorry I was taking your question I know too literally. for a 2-D pic to have a 3-D feel I think it is a matter of colour and compostion and DOF giving a good contrast between elements in the picture. For example in the last 3-d pair I posted, I think even the single pics have a slight 3-D feel caused by a mix of DOF and colour contrast.

Brian V.